Despite RapidShare's efforts to control copyrighted material illegally shared through its site, a court in Germany ruled that the Swiss-based cyberlocker "must proactively filter thousands of files uploaded by its users," TorrentFreak reports.
Good luck with that. The Higher Regional Court in Germany wants RapidShare to monitor each and every file uploaded to the site before it can be shared. That's not something that's feasible manually, and the Verge notes, "it's likely that RapidShare will have to develop a software-based solution to filter content."
It's not the first time RapidShare has been under scrutiny. In 2010, Rapidshare was named on the International Anti-Piracy Caucus’ (IAPC’s) first ever list of the worst notorious overseas websites.
Recently, in an effort curb illegal sharing of copywritten material – a practice that's currently difficult to monitor on most content-sharing sites – RapidShare began limiting its free download speed in February. To avoid the speed choke, any users who want to share their content with non-paying users cannot use the site anonymously.
This came after music rights group GEMA and book publishers De Gruyter and Campus took RapidShare to court in Germany, leading to a verdict celebrated by the German Booksellers Association.
"Internet sites can no longer avoid their responsibilities, and profit from copyright infringing uploads of anonymous users,” Alexander Skipis, chief executive of the German Booksellers Association, said in a statement.
UPDATE: "Unlike true locker services that are designed to allow individuals to store and access their own files, RapidShare is a file-sharing platform that is a hub for distributing copyrighted music," an RIAA spokesperson told Technolog in an email. "RapidShare is a file-sharing platform that is a hub for distributing copyrighted music. In 2011 alone, we notified RapidShare of nearly 200,000 infringements of music, many of which were repeat notifications for the same recordings."
RapidShare, for its part, says the GBA is celebrating prematurely as the court's written verdict has yet to be released. "We consider it as unprofessional to assess a judgment before the written reasons for the judgment are available," RapidShare spokesperson Daniel Raimer told TorrentFreak. "Only then you can determine which party can indeed celebrate a verdict as a success."
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.
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